You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
So perhaps a satellite dish manufacturer might be interested in having a view like this out of their hotel room window, but we're guessing most people would be closing those curtains up tight. This anti-view comes from the Charterhouse Hotel in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong.
The Charterhouse is basically just a budget hotel, but it's popular because it has a really convenient location. In fact, the good location is pretty much the only feature that previous guests consistently talk about, because other than that, it's not the most attractive place--although the Business floor and the S Signature floor do look neat and modern (but are no longer really a budget price).
The cheapest, standard rooms have a rate of around $80 a night; for HK$1,150 (US$150) you can get a renovated "S Classic" room including breakfast and free use of broadband in your room. Just don't look outside.
The Langham Hong Kong is basically oozing luxury. It's the city's only notch on the Leading Hotels of the World list, and among the hotels in the Virtuoso portfolio.
And to top it off, it's just renovated the holy heck out of its 270 Grand Rooms. In the hotel world, a milestone like that doesn't go by without some sort of package to celebrate. Thus here is the "Grand Deal" package with all trimmings attached.
Now, about those elegant rooms....The renovations put in 37-inch flat-screen TVs, silk drapes, burled timber and leather walls, new art pieces and photographs of old-world Hong Kong, immaculate open bathrooms connected to humungous living rooms, DVD players and iHome audio docks into each room. Not too shabby!
Beginning September 10 through December 30th, and going for US$277 a night, you'll get a free breakfast buffet at the hotel's L'Eclipse restaurant, plus all the free wireless connections you can plug in. The WiFi junkies were skeptical at first, but the place does deliver.
To make life easy, book your reservation through the hotel's Skype line.
Not a lot happens on Sundays. We tend to stay in with a bagel and the paper, maybe or maybe not nursing a hangover. Except this Sunday, had we the means, we'd be jetting off to Hong Kong for the W Hotel opening there.
We're excited about this hotel, because--well, simply put, it looks really cool. All 393 rooms have skyline views and come with iPod docking stations, LCD TVs in the bedroom and the bathroom and a minibar with free water. As we noted earlier, the location rocks, too: right in the West Kowloon district, a Mecca of commercial, entertainment and cultural options.
Though come to think of it, we'd wait a month before heading out there, as the hotel's Bliss spa and Wet rooftop pool aren't expected to open until September 1.
Regardless, whether it's this Sunday or a Sunday a month from now, we still won't have the means to afford a plane ticket to China, so if you happen to stop by the place in the coming weeks, let us know.
We all know about the drama that ensues when you show up to a hotel and your reservation is suddenly "missing." But how about if you are staying in a hotel and due to a hostile takeover of the hotel by a bank you were kicked out of the hotel with no new accommodations?
That's what happened to a bunch of guests staying at the Tatami Hampton Hotel in Hong Kong. Australia's Herald Sun reports:
A notice posted in the hotel lobby said it had been taken over by lawyers representing the bank and the bailiff pursuing a court order, the report said.
TV images showed the hotel doors bolted shut.
Granted the Tatami isn't (wasn't?) one of Hong Kong's premiere hotels. One reviewer compared the place to solitary confinement. The budget hotel actually looked like a 1970s predecessor to the Yotel brand.
Still, turning away hotel guests because of a bank takeover is pretty bad and the previous (current?) owner of the hotel is voicing his outrage on the hotel's website. It's a bunch of confusing Hong Kong legalese but the owner says:
The Bank's right to possession does not mean it can cold-bloodedly drive away hotel guests.
The owner also offers guests options for refunding their hotel room (expected to be paid by the big mean bank) and a hotline for more information.
In the history of specialty tidbits offered up by hotels, there are a few standout items for which we've happily said "charge it to the room:" first there was the premium espresso at the Fairmont Chicago, then came the Gansvoort's sex kit, and now we're all too enticed by the fancy French macaron set at the Four Seasons Hong Kong.
A "macaron," in contrast to the coconut macaroon, is actually a delicate little thing made of egg whites, almond powder and sugar, which resembles a mini pastel hamburger. Of course, Four Seasons will offer nothing but the best macarons, sourcing a selection from Ladurée, the Parisian patisserie which originally begot the handmade cakes back in the 1930s.
Primly packaged sets of 6 macarons are available at the Four Seasons Hong Kong in your choice of caramel, strawberry, pear, or the current currant favorite.
Let's hope this begins a trend; we can imagine at least some Ferrero Rocher at Courtyard by Marriott.
While its spawn Aloft is procreating all over North America this summer, W Hotels will continue to open their exotic locations abroad. And the W Hotel Hong Kong will open a "selection of rooms" in August, just one week before the Olympic Games begin in Beijing.
Despite the annoying cutesy descriptions on the W Hong Kong's home page like this one--"In this eastern Manhattan, energy streams like hot tea at dim sum where W Hong Kong sits among modern splendour, oriental markets and colonial cool"---we're actually rather impressed by this hotel.
It could be the exotic location in Hong Kong but it could also be the presence of a swimming pool at 700 feet above street level. This time, we really agree with the W's overusage of "Wow."
Back when the Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong had just opened back in 2004 we were excited to hear them talk about "omnipresent Wi-Fi" but a little skeptical about whether or not it would live up to the hype. So we thought we'd better check back in on what guests are saying now that the dust has settled.
For starters, TripAdvisor ratings now have it as the #1 hotel in Hong Kong. This is, surely, a good start. But as is so often the case, few guests seem to be as obsessed with WiFi access as we are. One was happy about the internet enabled computers provided free for guest use, but otherwise guest comments don't mention internet access at all.
The website assures us that since November 2007 (at least), all their rooms have had wireless broadband available at no extra cost; most rooms offer wired access too, if you want to plug in instead. And it's definitely all free.
Some Frenchman who fashion himself a real-life Spiderman climbed the 45-storey Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. Alain Roberts eluded city police to finish the climb, one of some 80 climbs that he's done around the world to raise awareness for global warming. We bet he had a killer view from that hotel.
We're not sure why he picked the Four Seasons but there are plenty of other super-tall hotels in Hong Kong he could have attempted to scale. Like:
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by amandak
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We all know about the drama that ensues when you show up to a hotel and your reservation is suddenly 
